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24 comments

Savvy Paul

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

It may look sexy but it’s making working with Shopify a much slower and more frustrating experience.

Removing the checkboxes for collections from the product create page is a major problem for us. I understand that the collections can be edited after the product has been created – but why add an additional step in the process? We ‘create’ around 300 unique products each month. This will add considerable extra time and potential for error into our work processes for no benefit that we can see.

After creating a product we used to see a link on the same page to ‘add a new product’. Again, this seems to have gone, so yet more unecessary clicks to go through.

The search box is in a non-intuitive place and slower to use.

Again, we must complain at how these announcements are made and changes implemented without any consultation or notice. Regardless of whether we like the changes or not, there’s no excuse not to communicate.

Interesting that Shopify deem they have the time to fanny around (quaint, English phraseology!) with cosmetic changes when the update required to continue accepting Maestro cards is a year overdue! What the hell do I want to see a poxy Gravatar for if I can’t take their money??!! Now, it’s really peeing me off – can you tell? Gravatar? My arse!

How about listening to actual retailers rather than designers who want to play with the latest gimmicks. Pass the tissues!

On the face of it, not acceptable. Please explain.

Clara

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Hi,

It is good that you are making these improvements, however the older version was mush easier to read. The new version is very bland, making it extremely difficult to find the info that I need, especially when I’m in a hurry, which is most of the time – maybe put some colour into it, like the older version, in key areas: New order today, payment method used, delivery method and so on… And maybe try and change the layout, make it a bit more user-friendly – the old layout was clear – you could find everything you needed very easily.

Thanks,

Clara

Janine Maslowsky

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Looks Great!!! One thing I am not finding is where do I find my uploaded images?
Thanks.

Derek

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Not sure how this is a joy. Did you receive enough feedback from us customers to give the admin area a facelift? I would be surprised if this is true considering all the other changes that people would like with Shopify.

Also…did you beta test this? Having the admin area changed is about as big of a deal as changing to the rich text editing and that was beta-tested for awhile before it rolled out.

In adjusting to this new look, I do like the extra stats and I can adjust to the “look” of it but here are a few things I noticed:

1. Where on the new order page can I find that a customer has opted-in for future promotions?

2. Why did you remove the simple copy/paste function for a customer’s email on the order page? I use this function to add customer’s emails to newsletter lists. (I know this point isn’t that big of a deal but when you have a shortcut taken away, it’s going to be noticed)

3. Is there any way of having a spam filter on the separate list of blog comments?

Derek

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Addendum to my previous comment…
just adding to my list:

4. Where can we find the running tally of total SKUs currently out of stock that used to be on the right side?

Jeff

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Overall it looks nice. One thing I’m finding pretty annoying is that you somehow broke the way email addresses work on the order pages so that now they’re very difficult to copy. I’m not sure what it is, but I used to be able to just right-click anywhere on the address and select “copy email address”, and now that option’s gone. And selecting “copy link location” just doesn’t work. You can still manually select the text and copy it, but the way it highlights is “backwards” and it’s also really difficult to select it without either clicking on it by mistake or missing completely.

I’m sure it seems like a small thing, and it’s probably a small fix too, but I have to copy email addresses out for every order we ship to paste them into the USPS click-n-ship interface, so it adds up.

lincoln

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Just saw the new shopify interface and I think it’s weak and annoying.

The grey text is almost impossible to read.
The green is week and there is no consistency.
We also could not easly find “contact”
Can’t see if my client accepted marketing easly.

Only thing I do like is that you can see subtotals at the top when I log in.

I’m wondering if shopify it getting big to quickly and has forgot about usability.

Ray Brown

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Wow…so much griping! I for one think that the new Shopify control panel is pretty slick, and I can’t wait to play around with it more and more.

Also, while I see some good points in the comments above, I think that the tone is completely uncalled for. Shopify work their bums off to offer a great service to us for a reasonable price. Please try to keep your cool while voicing your opinions constructively. I guarantee that you’ll get a better response.

Keep up the good work, team Shopify.

Dave Rad

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

It will take a little adapting tom but overall I think the changes are for the best, and cutting out the sidebar now im sure will add more opportunity to add new more robust features moving forward.

One feature which I keep wishing was there is the ability to go to previous and next when looking at a specific order. It would make my life a lot easier when going through and reviewing multiple orders.

Thanks for continuing to evolve the platform,
Dave

Christine

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

I have to agree with all the commenters that are peeved. I have a normal workflow set up with several employees and this is going to take a bit of getting used to, if anything. I would have liked to test out the option first. I don’t want to feel like I’m a facebook user… this is my business.. not a toy that I need to look prettier. I got an ipad for that ; )

Daniel

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Regarding the missing “Customer accepts marketing”:
It’s a precursor to improvements to come for your customer management. We didn’t think this information is related to the order but rather to the customer but i will see how we can make that information accessible again in the meantime without you having to export the order. Thanks for bringing it up and sorry for the temporary inconvenience.

Uploaded images are accessible via the new editor and also on your accounts page. It’s not part of your shop theme, that’s why we took them out from that section. We’re also investigating in giving the editor more power for organizing your uploaded files.

Daniel

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Please do not double post here and in the forums. I have answered all the concerns that have been brought up so far in the forums. Please take part in the discussion, post your constructive criticism and see our official responses here:

Derek: you can find the SKU tally in your products area, at the top click on “inventory view”

Savvy Paul

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

@Ray Brown

“Also, while I see some good points in the comments above, I think that the tone is completely uncalled for. Shopify work their bums off to offer a great service to us for a reasonable price. Please try to keep your cool while voicing your opinions constructively. I guarantee that you’ll get a better response.”

If only the last bit was true. The update promised nearly a year ago to enable us to continue accepting Maestro card payments has still not been implemented and there’s no sign of it in the near future. Voice your opinions whatever way you like, it still aint happening, and we’re still losing money because of it.

Re the Admin changes, I’m usually a pretty chilled-out sort of chap, but, when it comes to business, I hate nasty surprises. The first we knew about these changes was when I logged in this morning. We ‘create’ 300 unique products every month and every one of those will now have to be edited, just to put it into it’s collection. That is a seriousl tedious and time consuming task.

Shopify impose this on us, cost our business money in the process, fail to consult or test usability, and don’t even make an announcement until after it’s gone live.

On the other hand, we did post some obviously peeved comments.

Which is worse?

Miranda

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Just scratch my earlier comment… the previous comments were hidden until I posted my own.

Miranda

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Where is the area that let’s you know if the customer opted in for marketing?

Daniel

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

hop: yeah, that’s hopefully coming soon. The idea is that you will be able to go back and forth between orders.

hop

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Stark, harder to read with all this white. Did the text get smaller too? I would recommend taking some design queues from gmail or basecamp. How about some better order navigation – You have to go in, back out, then into the next one. Annoying when doing fulfillment. I don’t mean to hark, still greatly love shopify :)

aaron

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

much better!

Gillian

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

: ( I liked the old one. I knew where it all was and it was easy enough to use. I guess I will get used to it. But I’d rather have it the other way.

Don’t feel too bad, I hate it when any program or operating system changes. I take a while to warm up to it.

I guess I really liked the stats of who has visited and pages viewed stacked on top of each other. I found that very easy to read in one block. I liked the names of referring sites in full. Now the space is too short to put the name in full.

I think the number of orders takes up too much space. On the home page that much space for orders for today, last week and all that seems unnecessary.

Sorry. But there you go.

Daniel

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Gillian: thanks for the feedback!

Aaron: thank you!

Jon: Thanks! The reason the order number jump is that there have been abandoned orders between your two orders (1017 & 1021). Each order needs to have its own unique number. That’s something that has always worked like this in Shopify.
You can see your abandoned orders from the orders overview by changing “any payment” status to “abandoned orders”

Jon (Ches)

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Hi Daniel

The changes are great. I am specifically refering to the new layout of the order sheet.

On another matter, I have noticed My order numbers jump from 1017 to 1021. What would have happened to 1018,1019 and 1020?

I look forward to hearing from you

Regards
Ches
ches.va@mitchellcooper.co.uk
(ps. I am covering for Jon while he is on Holiday)

ronen

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

great update.
thnak you.
Ronen

eric chong

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

To be honest, i am really disapointed with the new style of the admin area, there’s some changes doesnt make sense while i’m adding a new product.
1, after adding a new product, there’s no button for adding another new product, you have to backward the page to add another new product.
2, when adding a new product, you are always want to show it on the front page and also want to show it in the new arrival collection or any other collections, but there’s no such options now to put it on the front page and the new arrival collection. All these were concerned well in the previous version of the admin area, i really hope you guys to add these functions again in the new admin area. Thanks!

Daniel

May 21 2010, 08:00AM

Eric, when you create a product now you will be able to add it to any collection right away, so it’s even faster.